Ever since time began, Allah’s (God’s) prophets and messengers have called people to the true path. Some people heeded this call and surrendered themselves to Allah, thus attaining an honorable life in this world and in the Hereafter. Others persisted in their unbelief, thus earning a troubled and difficult life in this world and eternal suffering in the Hereafter. Just like the other prophets sent by Allah, the Prophet Jesus commanded his society to worship Allah, the One and Only, and to live with the knowledge that they will have to account for themselves on the Day of Judgment, recommended that they live by moral values that please Allah, and called on them to avoid denial, polytheism, and evil in all of its forms. Those who rejected his call tried to pressure him and those who followed him to give up their mission. For that reason, as has happened with many prophets and believers throughout history, they set traps for the Prophet Jesus. One of these was how they would kill him.
However, with his unique birth and the miracles he performed by Allah’s grace, the Prophet Jesus was one of Allah’s blessed prophets. Allah laid out a specific destiny for him, and thus all of the unbelievers’ traps came to nothing. Allah reveals in the Qur’an that the Prophet Jesus’ enemies failed to kill him, although they were made to think that they had. Allah raised the Prophet Jesus to His Presence while he was still alive. Like Allah reveals in the Qur’an, as well as the words of our beloved Prophet, say that the Prophet Jesus will return to Earth, a great miracle indeed.
Those who maintain that the Prophet Jesus was killed or is dead are making a serious mistake. One purpose in writing this book is to explain why this is so. In the following pages, we will examine the Qur’anic verses and the hadith of Prophet Muhammad that reveal the truth of this issue, which has confused so many people over the centuries.
In addition, this book will remind the reader of two important tidings: the Prophet Jesus’ return to Earth and the signs that will precede this event. By Allah’s will, his second coming has drawn near, and the world will witness great events when it becomes a reality. All sincere believers need to prepare for this miraculous period in the most appropriate way.
Before examining the proofs that the Prophet Jesus is not dead and will return to Earth, we will clarify several important points.
The Prophet Jesus and the Mahdi Will Come in this Century
Works by great and esteemed Islamic scholars, including Sunan Abu-Dawud and Maktubat of Rabbani, explicitly state that Allah sends an individual every century in order to revive and rid religious morals of any innovations:
According to Abu Huraira’s account, the Messenger of Allah said: Certainly Almighty and All-Powerful Allah will send an individual at the beginning of every century who will renew the faith and free it from subsequent accretions.1
One hadith handed down from our Prophet states that the Mahdi will appear in the Islamic year 1400 in the words: People will gather around the Mahdi in the year 1400.2
The religious moral values of Islam will rule the whole world, as the result of a specific process, in this century, while the system of the dajjal (the antichrist) that opposes those values will entirely disappear. But following this period of progression, that will last for approximately 100 years, the world will again find itself in a phase of degeneration, around the 1500s according to the Islamic calendar. In one hadith narrated by many scholars, including Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, a great hadith and Islamic jurisprudence scholar, our Prophet provides important information about the beginning of human history by saying that 5600 years had passed up until his own day:
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal transmitted in his ’Ilal: Five thousand six hundred years have passed from this world.3
Many other hadith contain explicit references to the life span of the world being 7000 years:
Anas Ibn Malik narrates that the Messenger of Allah said: The life span of the world is seven days in the days of the Hereafter. Almighty Allah has said: One day in the Sight of your Lord is like a thousand of your years. Allah will ascribe the equivalent of good deeds of the seven thousand years of the age of this world to the one who meets the need of any of his brothers in the faith on the path of Allah as if he spends his days in fasting and his nights in worship.4 Narrated from Daqqaq Ibn Zaid al-Juhani: I told the Messenger of Allah of a dream I had had. In that dream the Messenger of Allah was at the top step of a seven-stepped pulpit. He said: The seven-stepped pulpit you see is the seven thousand years of age of this world.5
Said Nursi, the renovator of the Islamic 1300s and the greatest one of the last millennium, cited the Islamic 1500s as the period of dominion of Islamic moral values. He stated that Muslims would enjoy a time of clear and explicit victory up until then. He said that in the years after that, the rise of the moral values of Islam would come to an end and that the Last Day would break for the unbelievers in the Islamic year 1545. (Allah knows the truth.)
“A group from my community will remain in truth until Allah’s command [the Last Day].” The abjad calculation of the clause “A group from my community…” which is 1542 [2117] implies its [the community’s] time of survival. The abjad calculation of the clause “will remain in truth” (when the germination mark is counted) gives 1506 [2082]; it indicates until that date [2082] it will continue its work of enlightenment evidently and obviously, and maybe victoriously; then until 1542 [2117] in secrecy and defeat. The abjad calculation of the clause “until Allah’s command” (when the gemination mark is counted) suggests that the last day will befall the unbeliever in 1545 [2120].6
The Islamic scholar al-Barzanji states that the life span of the world will not last until the Islamic 1600, in other words, that the Last Day is expected to come in Islamic 1500s by Allah’s leave. (Allah knows the truth.)
The life of this community will exceed 1,000 years, yet be limited to 1,500 years…7
Suyuti’s statement made on the basis of the hadith handed down from our Prophet is as follows:
The life of my community will not exceed 1,500 years.8
As is clear from the hadith of the Prophet and statements by great Islamic scholars, the Islamic 1400s we are now living in is the age of the coming of the Mahdi. The Prophet Jesus will return to Earth in this century, the Mahdi will appear and the moral values of Islam will rule the world. he Qur’an and the hadith contain many signs indicating that the period of the End Times is approaching. Some of these signs are clearly revealed in those two sources, while others are referred to in a more indirect manner. This is part of Allah’s testing of humanity.
The great Islamic scholar Said Nursi stressed this fact while explaining the signs of the End Times: Religion is a test, an experience that separates the superior from the inferior. Therefore, an event that will be seen by everyone in the future will be debated in such a way that it will neither be completely obscure, nor so evident that it will inevitably be accepted by everyone. It will open the door to reason, but it will not do away with the possibility of choice. That is because if a sign of the Day of Judgment is seen in such a completely evident form that everyone is obliged to accept it, then a person with a coal-like predisposition will remain alongside a person with a diamond-like predisposition. As a result, the secret of Allah’s charging humanity to act in compliance with His commands and prohibitions and the consequences of the test are lost.9 Thus, one characteristic of the End Times’ signs may be that not everyone who sees them can immediately understand and interpret them. The fact that some of these signs have been described in an oblique manner may cause some people to have doubts. Yet these doubts are completely
